It’s odd to consider 2012, just ten years ago, as part of history, but technically everything in the past is.  Likewise, Everything is also a primary source, including—or in this podcaster’s opinion, especially—movies .  2012’s Django Unchained was the second of three Quentin Tarantino-directed movies to dabble in the Western genre (the first being Kill Bill Volume 2 and the third is The Hateful Eight), and as all movies do, this Western, a piece of historical fiction, tells us more about the time period from which it was produced than it does about history itself.

Laura Cayouette assisted me in dissecting this picture, and the Western film genre itself.  She should know a thing or two about Django Unchained as she starred in the movie as Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly, and her expertise in film and film history shines through from her career as an actor, director, producer, writer and teacher.